The present exemplary embodiments broadly relate to systems and methods to order consumables for use within print operations. In one particular application, orders are placed to support a just-in-time system as predefined yield thresholds are met. It is to be appreciated, however, that the present exemplary embodiments are also amenable to other like applications.
Conventional print systems employ multiple marking engines to provide high print outputs by distributing a print job among a plurality of marking engines. These systems may include several black, full color, and/or custom color marking engines for printing of selected pages within a print job. Each marking engine can have a number of components that can be regarded as consumables, since they are designed to be consumed or worn out and replaced at intervals during the normal lifetime of the printing system. Consumables for xerographic marking engines typically include toner cartridges, photoreceptor belts, and the like.
Ink jet printers often have ink cartridges can contain ink in liquid or solid (stick) form. In a color marking engine for a xerographic process, for example, there may be four toner cartridges, one for each of the cyan, magenta, yellow, and black separations of the image. As the number of marking engines in a printing system increases, the number of times any one of the toner cartridges needs to be replaced in a given time period increases. For example, in a printing system with four process color marking engines, there may be sixteen toner cartridges.
Even where each marking engine prints an approximately equal number of pages, differences in the content of the pages and individual attributes of the marking engines can result in unequal consumption of the marking materials. For example, a page with a large proportion of solid black or other color will consume more toner than a page which is light grey or has only a small area of coverage. Since the cartridges tend to run out at different times, it is difficult for the operator to set up a replacement schedule for simultaneous replacement of cartridges or other consumable items without resulting in considerable wastage of the consumables.
This problem is exacerbated when determining the order point for supplies within a just-in-time inventory system. This is due to several factors, including knowing the current inventory supply at the customer site and the current toner levels on the device. Even though some devices will report the current level of the toner in the device, it is not an accurate predictive measure of when to reorder due to the variance in the yield from cartridge to cartridge. What are needed are systems and methods to provide more accurate predictive models for consumable supply ordering.